The Ultimate Email Marketing Personalization Checklist

Personalization in email marketing means more than just slapping the recipient’s name in the salutation. Email marketing personalization is all about addressing each recipient as an individual.

Yes, it includes mentioning them by name but goes beyond that by offering relevant content and a unique experience to each of your subscribers.

Each interaction is informed by what you know about that customer, making each touch seem curated & individualized.

How do you achieve that?

In order to create relevant content for your readers, you need to learn as much information as you can about them by gathering first and zero-party data, which can be self-reported or captured based on an individual’s behaviors.

This type of data looks like:

• First name
• Past behavior on your site
• Geographical location
• Purchase history
• Preferences*

The data you need to create a personalized experience for your customer depends mainly on your product, business model, and your marketing goals. However, the more you know about your customer, the better your email marketing personalization strategy will be.

If possible, acquire as much data as possible from your customers when they sign up to make it easier for you to run personalized campaigns. Ask questions that help you learn about how your customers want to be communicated with; learning preferences regarding content, desired email frequency, and even likes/dislikes can help create personalized campaigns so each customer receives their ideal experience.

This is as easy as adding an extra, optional question to your email opt-in form. Anything from “What’s your favorite color?” to “are you an Early Bird or Night Owl?” can inform better email cadences for that specific person.

No matter how robust or streamlined your data acquisition has been, you can always leverage the data you have now to segment your email list.

Segmentation simply means grouping customers with similar attributes together. For instance, you could segment your list according to location, gender, or browsing history.

You should use advanced segmentation whenever possible and use multiple attributes to refine your segments for better targeting and higher personalization levels. Enriching customer profiles with more data allows you to better employ advanced segmentation.

Segmentation is a great way to create content that is relevant to your subscribers without having to tailor an email for each individual customer.

Email marketing personalization is impossible to pull off without automation.

Whether you have a small list or a large one, there are too many moving parts involved in running a successful campaign for you to manage manually.

This is why one of your best investments when it comes to email marketing is a robust platform that will empower you to scale your email marketing efforts.

Customers have come to expect brands to employ advanced personalization strategies to prove they value their customers

In our recent Consumer Trends Index report, we found that a third of customers felt frustrated by receiving messaging that didn’t recognize their shopping or loyalty history, which marks a 3% increase since 2022.

Almost half – 49% – of consumers felt frustrated by brands when they received irrelevant content or offers. Personalization is not only expected, but failure to successfully implement personalization in emails results in a negative perception of your brand.

But don’t worry—achieving your customers’ expectations is possible.

That’s why we created the Ultimate Email Marketing Personalization Checklist to help empower marketers to use the power of personalization to reach humans, not just inboxes, and leave a positive impression.

Behavioral
Display content based on your subscriber’s local weather

Images
Try adding your subscriber’s name to an image to get their attention.

Location
Use your subscriber’s location to create helpful reminders, no matter where they live.

Preferences
Target different content based on your subscriber’s preferences.

SUBJECT LINE

Grammar
Check that the grammar is correct and the personalization makes sense in the context of the subject line.

Fallbacks
Set up default text in case you don’t have the data on file.

Length
Optimize the length of your subject line with the preview pane in mind.

Clarity
The CTA should be clear and easy to find.

PREHEADER

Length
Check length to ensure readability on all devices.

HEADER

Fonts
If you’re using a new or different font with your header personalization, make sure it jibes with the rest of your email content.

Testing
Use a tool like Litmus for testing.

BODY

Testing
If you’re using advanced personalization like content based on your subscriber’s behavior, for example, test multiple variations.

CALL-TO-ACTION

Tracking
Include tracking links so you know if your personalization was effective.

CTA
Make your CTA copy compelling.

Links
Make sure your links lead to the right places.

Clarity
The CTA should be clear and easy to find.

CHECK DATA FIELDS Do you have all the data you need for each personalized field? Your personalization is only as good as your data, so double-check your fields to be sure. The last thing you want is %FIRSTNAME% – or worse, an expletive – to appear in your personalized field.

INCLUDE FALLBACKS
Prepare fallback content for any field that may not be populated. Fallback content should be email content that can be applied to any of your subscribers.

OPTIMIZE YOUR SEND TIME
Bad timing could jeopardize your otherwise perfectly personalized email.

DESIGN REVIEW
Remember to test multiple name lengths, special characters, and the alignment of your personalized copy and images. The more eyes the better, so send yourself and a colleague a test email.

CREATE AN A /B TEST
Send one email with personalization and one without. It’s the best way to measure your personalized email strategy.

ENSURE IT’S RESPONSIVE
Does it look good on desktop and mobile? Double-check all of the above across all devices.